The Supreme Court, on May 11, dismissed the curative petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to enhance the punishment of the accused in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case. The petition was filed in August 2010 against an order of the apex court that diluted the charges against the accused in 1996. The court said that the CBI approached the court after a long period of 14 years and there were no sufficient grounds to invoke the curative jurisdiction.

As India attends the COP5, it is worth looking at how it has fared in the past. In COP 4, held in 2008, India had played spoilsport by preventing chrysotile asbestos and endosulfan from being included in Annex III of UN's Rotterdam Convention that brands them hazardous. Including the two in the Annex III would have made mandatory for countries to take a Prior Informed Consent, or PIC, before exporting them to other countries.

Bonn, June 11: Ecosystem based adaptation to climate change impacts has emerged as the most cost-effective method both for climate insurance schemes and developing resilience in communities to combat climate change.

Climate negotiations come under scanner yet again for being unfair to smaller nations, civil society

Aditya Ghosh

Bonn, June 13: The UNFCCC climate talks were once again accused of being unfair and not inclusive, this time by Venezuela and a host of NGO observers, in Bonn. Too much fragmentation was not fulfilling the cause of a transparent negotiation, these groups claimed.